Sunday, April 23, 2017

Schedule week of Apr 24

Three significant events last week. Admin and IT support for a two day conference that consumed all of Thursday and Friday, my Garmin Forerunner 935 came in at IT&B, and I committed to a more personalized run coaching arrangement. Too soon to see any results, but I am looking forward to exciting times.

The impact of that conference is obvious, as I barely got in half as much training as originally planned. No big deal, that happens to all of us. The most important thing is not to try and make it all up this week.

I did make it to yoga with Pattie Thursday night, where of course we did leg stuff. A whole series of lunges and stretches that focused on some of the key leg movements in Sun Salutations. I say "of course" because this was on top of the leg workout we did with Dorian on Monday in the gym. I actually packed a run kit on Thursday in case there was time at lunch for a few laps around Palm Circle, but a disgruntled computer nixed that. I had planned to do a short but intense bike workout Friday after work, but when Carl from IT&B called to say my 935 was in I decided to pick it up instead, followed by family dinner out at Kakaoko Kitchen.

The decision to do more with Jason Fitzgerald at Strength Running was the result of a long letter I wrote but never sent to one of my swim coaches, Suzanne Atkinson. I never met her in person but we did a lot of one-on-one via the Total Immersion Academy, and she is a co-author of a great swim workout book for TI swimmers called Fresh Freestyle. One of the other authors was the lead coach at the Total Immersion swim camp I attended last year in Kona. I was frustrated with my situation and decided to unload on poor Suzanne, but in the process it became clear to me that things were not bad at all. This is what happens when you compare yourself to people around you, and especially when you are imagining the other folks having a wonderful time. Writing it down was the perfect process for allowing me to see my mistakes. Then, having gained some clarity and insight, along came an offer from Jason. Running is the one area in triathlon where I have had no personalized coaching. So I decided it was time, exactly what I was looking for without knowing it.

Speaking of yoga, I did a workshop recently with Kofi Busia at Elaine's studio. One of the points he made was that the purpose of doing yoga poses was to create space, in the body and the mind. Rather than struggle to get there, create the space and move into it. So maybe one of the outcomes for me was to create the space to improve my running.

One immediate outcome of signing up with Jason is the return of the long run. I thought I would cut back after Hapalua, but if I want to get good enough to return to Kona I will have to keep the ten mile run in my schedule. This week it conflicts with the Haleiwa Metric Century Ride, so I took Friday off and will run it that morning. Just for the heck of it I decided to take Monday off, too. I never take enough time off!

The downward trend in my TP fitness summary continues. Week before last it was the concert, this week it was the conference. Next week should see improvement.

That improvement is none too soon, as my current trajectory has me sagging well below my plan to get to CTTS.